On the due date noted below, you will be pleased and alleviated to turn
in the most significant single piece of work you will have produced for
the semester in this class, something that ought to have a respectable
afterlife -- at least as a potential portfolio paper or project, but
possibly as the central production of your own particular expertise in
Chaucer studies, or the kernel of a larger future masterpiece. Eventually
you're going to die; aim for step one of immortality now. Heere is youre
gode fortune: the optiouns.

1) THE FULFILLMENT OF YOUR PROMISE: a minimum ten-page manuscript, a
web site, or a major happening.

If you opted in the first assignment for a work-in-progress, time to ante
up, Chuckles. And it had better be impressive. Bet you're sorry now for
lolling about, back in September.

You need to submit the graded earlier text with the final version
so I can see all the ignored advice I originally gave you. Chances are I
was too polite in my comments on your proposal and you should read
between the lines to cultivate an effective dread over how pitiful I
really thought the project sounded. Then fix it. Overcompensate too.
Realize that a lot of people who went through the agony of cranking out a
complete shorter paper last time suspect you're probably a cheesy
slacker. Overcompensate some more.

See immediately below for more paper warnings.

2) THE SECOND PROJECT: a minimum seven-page paper or equivalent.

If you submitted a completed four-page paper for your first assignment,
this more substantial manuscript will fulfill project requirements for
the semester. The typical weakness with such papers is the too general
nature in the analyses of the topics and the erroneous notion that
selection of some vast subject will allow for superficial discussion of
two or more works slapped together to fill the required pages of what is,
honestly, a relatively short paper. This inevitably leads at least to a
vague and diluted discussion of the purported issue, and more often to an
insane mess. Such a project, and its resultant grade, will suck.

Be conscientious, nay ruthless, merciless! in focusing your scope and in
exploring implications of a specific moment, a subtle motif, or a
character issue. Find a specific facet of the selected work or a
peculiarity in need of explanation. Why is this one observation or
insight of yours significant in the larger framework of the poem?

You are required this time to research and include secondary sources, but
original insight and analysis should still dominate the entire
discussion. Your final revised essay must be a minimum of seven full,
typed, double-spaced pages containing an intriguing (not underlined)
title, an original unified thesis, vigorous analytical work, no extra
spaces between paragraphs, all in a clean, effective, illuminating,
properly documented presentation (correctly punctuated in-text
parenthetical citations of author and page, and a correctly formatted
MLA-style Works Cited list).

For further instruction regarding documentation, refer to the hand-out
given with the previous assignment, or to the web page, or ask me ahead
of time. Proofread well so that minor surface matters do not distract
readers from your ideas. The grade for any project lacking a Works Cited
list or containing a renegade, variant, or asinine documentation system
will strike you as intensely disappointing.

3) BRILLIANT UNANTICIPATED ALTERNATIVE: you tell me.

I welcome other kinds of projects that demonstrate the same objectives
that the paper does: ability to carry out sophisticated research, to
discover an original purpose and focus, to write with clarity and
influence your audience's perspective. You may find a way to construct a
bibliographical, filmic, pedagogical, or popular culture related project
appropriate to Chaucer studies which will inspire enthusiasm and break
new ground impressively. You may work on a collaborative endeavor with a
colleague. There are many possibilities. Think about it.

4) CYBERSCHOLARSHIP: a web page.

You may work alone or with someone else creating a useful resource for
current and future students of Chaucer. Realize that this is a scholarly
project, not an advertisement or fan page. Pick an appropriately
manageable scope for the project and include all the key ingredients that
you would provide for a paper: research, analysis, commentary, and
whatever else would make this creation impressive and valuable. And then
package this in ways appropriate for a web site (research gets registered
in a Works Cited that may include hyperlinks, for example) and for an
audience consisting of future students of this class. Do not just create
a recycling dumpsite, that is, don't replicate what's already available.
Instead, be sure to offer the one thing most lacking on the web: critical
analysis -- not a full paper's worth, since that just invites plagiarism,
but some sophisticated components of commentary.

If you choose this project because it seems easy and you think you can
submit any old crap with a jpg of the Ellesmere Chaucer, you are doomed
and will fail most miserably. If you take up this challenge heroically
and meaningfully, it will show. And we can discuss afterwards how to
display, link, or incorporate the work most appropriately and helpfully.

Sample papers, good to excellent, are available on this web site, as are
instructions and examples for the required MLA-style
documentation.

I am glad to provide advice and help at any stage, from pre-writing and
researching to the drafting, of this project. Ultimately, though, it must
be completed and turned in when due; the compressed schedule of late
semester does not allow for screwing around and cheesy excuses.